About Speaking of Diabetes

Speaking of Diabetes is produced by Joslin Diabetes Center for people with diabetes and those who care for them..

Joslin Diabetes Center, a teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a one-of-a-kind institution on the front lines of the world epidemic of diabetes - leading the battle to conquer diabetes in all forms through cutting-edge research and innovative approaches to clinical care and education.

Physicians have long observed that mood disorders, including depression, occur more often in patients with diabetes, than even those with other chronic disease. However, the relationship between these two conditions has remained something of a mystery. One possible hypothesis is that patients become depressed as a result of being diagnosed with diabetes and the impact it has on their quality of life — a reasonable assumption.

But others, such as André Kleinridders, Ph.D., a research fellow at Joslin, believes that type 2 diabetes can trigger a biological response that leads to depression. This is the focus of his research in the laboratory of Dr. C. Ronald Kahn. He uses a mouse model of diabetes to understand the development of depression, and how it can best be treated.